The adoption rate across Australia has fallen, with the 317 permanent care arrangements finalised across the country this year the “lowest annual number on record”, according to a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The figure represented a drop of 9 per cent on last year when 348 permanent arrangements were finalised.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released its Adoptions Australia 2013-14 report on Wednesday, comparing current trends in adoptions with previous versions of the report that date back to 1989-90.
The latest report noted there was a 76 per cent decline in adoptions in Australia in the last 25 years, with the most noticeable long-term fall in adoption of Australian children.
About a third of all adoptions, 114, were children from overseas but that number is falling too.
This year, the lowest annual number of international adoptions in the last 25 years was recorded.
The most common countries of origin for adoptions this year were Taiwan, followed by the Philippines and South Korea with 89 per cent of all overseas adoptions coming from Asia.
On average, the process for an overseas adoptions took about five years, an increase of two years since 2007-08.
The report noted that despite the “long-term fall in the number of adoptions [being] more noticeable in the number of Australian children adopted each year than children from overseas”, more Australian children had their adoption order finalised this year than children from overseas.
It said the fall in adoption numbers was due to both legislative and social changes.
“The long-term fall in numbers can, in part, be attributed to legislative changes, such as the increased use of alternative legal orders in Australia, and improvements in local adoption practices in countries of origin,” the report read.
“As well as to broader social trends and changing social attitudes, which have made it easier for children to stay with their family or in their country of origin.”
Known child adoptions common in Australia
In Australia, it is becoming more common for children to be adopted by a known carer, particularly in New South Wales where recent reforms have encouraged adoptions by someone known to the child.
Called known carer adoptions, there were 89 adoptions in this category, which can include adoptions by a family member or foster carer.
Of all known carer adoptions, 57 per cent were non-relative carers such as foster carers and 41 per cent were step parents.
The report said in the case of step parents “the aim of this type of adoption is to provide the child with a clear legal position, status and stability within the new family arrangement”.
For this kind of adoption, there was a tendency for the children to be older with less than half, 45 per cent, aged below five years.